Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., Earnings/Financials

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It’s that time of the year again, kids. Manufacturers are busy trying to put people in cars in order to move leftover stock and make room for incoming models, and many are doing so with ridiculously low financing rates. But who’s the fairest of them all? As it turns out, that depends entirely on where you live. The crew over at Kicking Tires has compiled average loan interest rates from across the country and organized the data into the incredibly handy map you see above.

As it turns out, car buyers in places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas are getting the short end of the financial stick when it comes to their loans, with buyers dealing with 9.55 percent and 9.58 percent APR, respectively. Meanwhile, those in places like Oklahoma City are shouldering a much more reasonable 3.65 percent APR.

The Kicking Tires study is based on a $22,000 loan for 60 months, with 10 percent down. It also assumes a borrower with a credit score of 700 or better.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

Who pays the highest auto loan interest rates in the country? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Budget, Europe, Paris Motor Show, Hatchback, Chevrolet

General Motors will be expanding Chevrolet of Europe’s lineup by adding a five-door Cruze, and while we won’t get our first look at this new hatchback for a few weeks, GM has decided to preview it early with a few pictures on the web. Sure to be one of the major draws at the Paris Motor Show in just a few weeks, the liftback ought to compete nicely with the 2012 Ford Focus five-door, but don’t expect GM to offer the more functional Cruze in the United States. “Americans don’t like hatchbacks,” remember?

Much like the Aveo RS and Buick Regal GS from this year’s Detroit Auto Show, GM calls the Cruze hatchback a “show car,” but in this case, that means that it’s somewhere between the stages of concept and prototype. Don’t expect the body to change, but we can easily see the front LED light bar and larger wheels being scrapped for the sake of cost-cutting.

Chevrolet says it will begin selling the Cruze hatchback across Europe in mid-2011 and pricing will be announced closer to the model’s on-sale date. Follow the jump for the full details in GM’s press release. Thanks to everyone for the tips!

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading Paris Preview: GM unveils Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for Europe

Paris Preview: GM unveils Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for Europe originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: SUV, Government/Legal, Safety, Ford

Ford’s second-generation Explorer has just cost the company $131 million. Despite the popularity of the seminal SUV, it’s had more than its fair share of legal scrapes regarding its rollover resistance. And while the Explorer/Firestone tire kerfuffle has long since exited the headlines, the Blue Oval continues to get its pocketbook dinged by the SUV. According to Autoblog sister site AOL Autos, this week, a jury in Jackson, Mississippi was to decide on possible punitive damages in the lawsuit over the death of Brian Cole, a promising baseball player headed for the New York Mets. Ford settled with the family over the matter of the 2001 rollover accident after a jury awarded $131 million in damages. Punitive damages were the next decision the jury was to consider before Ford settled.

Ford apparently disagrees with the blame placed on its vehicle, saying that the 22-year-old Cole was speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. Cole died from injuries sustained after being ejected from his Explorer during a rollover accident on a Florida highway. His cousin, Ryan Cole, survived the accident, which Ford attributes to the use of a seatbelt and the Explorer’s crash performance. While a settlement can be taken as a de facto acknowledgement of the Cole family’s claims that the Explorer is inherently unstable and its safety belts can fail in rollovers, the automaker maintains that it didn’t receive a fair trial, and settled to bring closure to the issue.

[Source: AOL Autos]

Ford settles $131m Explorer rollover case originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Public sector strikes in South Africa have become so common in recent years that people are asking if plans should not be put in place to prevent the disruption of HIV and tuberculosis [TB] treatment, and prepare health workers.

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This week’s riots in Maputo will not prevent Portuguese businesses from investing in Mozambique, according to Telmo Fernandes, managing partner of Market Access, a consultancy firm based in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto.

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Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Toyota

If you want a job at Toyota’s still under construction Mississippi assembly plant, you’d better get in line. In fact, you’d best fill out an application post-haste, because the Japanese automaker reportedly received 9,600 applications in its first week. Anyone surprised? Americans want and need jobs, and they’re chomping at the bit for a chance to earn a steady income of $15 to $20 per hour.

According to Edmunds Auto Observer, applications came from 33 different states in the Union, with 8,000 of the applications originating from the state of Mississippi. David Copenhaver, vice president of administration at Toyota, reportedly told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper that the majority of the jobs will go to applicants who reside within 100 miles of the facility.

Nearly 10,000 applications in a week’s time is plenty impressive, but it’s not like they’re applying for a handful of jobs. Toyota is hiring approximately 1,350 hourly and 150 salary employees to build the Corolla, with the chance for an even larger workforce if the automaker decides to increase production down the road.

[Source: Edmunds Auto Observer]

Report: Toyota gets overwhelming response for new hires at Mississippi plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

If you’ve been wondering what former General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson has been up to since getting the boot, The Detroit News has the skinny for you. Henderson is now headed to Sunoco to fill in as the company’s senior vice president, at least for now. The company is currently planning to spin off its SunCoke Energy arm during the first half of 2011, and when that happens, Henderson will become the subsidiary’s chairman and CEO.

SunCoke produces metallurgical coke used to manufacture steel. The company currently operates plants in Virginia, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and is currently building a second, high-capacity facility in the Buckeye State. That plant, in Middleton, is slated to produce 550,000 tons of coke while at max capacity.

Coke is formed by super heating coal to bond carbon and ash. The process burns off contaminates like water and coal tar to create an energy-dense fuel. Byproducts of the process are typically used to generate electricity, as in the case with the Middleton plant.

Henderson, a long-time GM man, held the company’s reins for a short time starting in 2009, but was replaced with Ed Whitacre amidst concerns that the company’s turnaround wasn’t moving fast enough.

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Joe Raedle/Getty]

Report: Former GM CEO Fritz Henderson to lead Sunoco spinoff originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PETROLEUM retailer Engen is on the verge of buying Chevron’s downstream assets in seven sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean Island countries, the company said yesterday.

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New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region.

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Performance, Europe, BMW, Luxury

Occasionally, we find ourselves wondering why manufacturers continue to insist on testing their prototype vehicles at the infamous Nürburgring. Yes, the track is 13 miles of some of the most abusive variations in elevation and apex around, but it’s also flooded with legions of hungry spy photographers just waiting to publicize the carmakers’ latest efforts. You’d think they’d come up with a locale with a smidge more privacy.

But the truth is that the Nürburgring offers a unique combination of length, speed and legality that’s difficult to come across elsewhere in the world. Those three factors combine to allow engineers to push vehicles well past what the common buyer will ever experience, and sometimes, that means pushing a vehicle all the way to mechanical failure. We aren’t exactly sure what caused this particular BMW M5 mule to go lame, but we’re guessing that the testing was well worth what was bound to be the mountain of paperwork facing these guys when they get back to the office.

At least the X5 seems to be up to the task of pulling its sportier brother around.

[Source: CarPix]

Spy Shots: BMW M5 prototype gets towed off the ‘Ring originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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